Mr Barry's War

Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the Great Fire of 1834

Caroline Shenton

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English

Oxford University Press
22 September 2016

Public buildings: civic, commercial, industrial; History; British & Irish history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900

When the brilliant classical architect Charles Barry won the competition to build a new, Gothic, Houses of Parliament in London he thought it was the chance of a lifetime. It swiftly turned into the most nightmarish building programme of the century. From the beginning, its design, construction and decoration were a battlefield. The practical and political forces ranged against him were immense.

The new Palace of Westminster had to be built on acres of unstable quicksand, while the Lords and Commons carried on their work as usual. Its river frontage, a quarter of a mile long, needed to be constructed in the treacherous currents of the Thames. Its towers were so gigantic they required feats of civil engineering and building technology never used before. And the interior demanded spectacular new Gothic features not seen since the middle ages.

Rallying the genius of his collaborator Pugin; flanking the mad schemes of a host of crackpot inventors, ignorant busybodies and hostile politicians; attacking strikes, sewage and cholera; charging forward three times over budget and massively behind schedule, it took twenty-five years for Barry to achieve victory with his 'Great Work' in the face of overwhelming odds, and at great personal cost.

Mr Barry's War takes up where its prize-winning prequel The Day Parliament Burned Down left off, telling the story of how the greatest building programme in Britain for centuries produced the world's most famous secular cathedral to democracy.

By: Caroline Shenton
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 168mm, Spine: 29mm
Weight: 548g
ISBN: 9780198707196
ISBN 10: 0198707193
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 22 September 2016
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

PROLOGUE ; FIRE (1834-1837) ; WATER (1837-1843) ; AIR (1844-1852) ; EARTH (1852-1860) ; EPILOGUE ; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

Caroline Shenton was Director of the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster from 2008 to 2014, and prior to that was a senior archivist at Parliament and The National Archives at Kew. Her first book, The Day Parliament Burned Down, won the inaugural Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. It was also shortlisted for a number of other prizes, including the Longman-History Today Prize, and was a Book of the Year for the Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, Daily Mail, and Herald Scotland. This is its sequel.

Reviews for Mr Barry's War: Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the Great Fire of 1834

An achievement as intricate and splendid as Mr Barry's own. Superb. Lucy Worsley This beautifully crafted book walks us through a tumultuous fragment of our history, deftly illuminating every extraordinary step - the rivalries, the soaring ambitions, the barely-hid betrayals, the spectacular personal suffering. As the new Palace of Westminster rose from the ruins of the old it was at times dwarfed by the personal battles that lay behind its creation. This is politics laid on with a mason's trowel. Lord Michael Dobbs, author of House of Cards